


Dog Trouble

by Gemenice



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Comedy, Dog - Freeform, Fluff, M/M, Romance, challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-18
Updated: 2015-04-18
Packaged: 2018-03-23 14:44:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3772150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gemenice/pseuds/Gemenice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one AU where Steve owns a dog, manages to lose it, Danny and Gracie find it, and Kono is a bit of a fangirl.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	Dog Trouble

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Liu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liu/gifts).



> Yo, another filled challenge from my best friend.  
> Challenge: Steve loses a dog, Danny and Gracie find them, Gracie doesn't want to give it up, so she gets visitation rights, thus Danny is forced to spend time with crazy SEAL... or something like that

“Can we do that again, Danno?” His wonderful princess asked and Danny smiled, picking her up.

“Sure, monkey.” And if he knew that seeing little seals in ZOO would make his child this happy, he would’ve brought her there long ago. Finally something that STEP-DAN didn’t figure out before him. And Danny seriously hated that guy - and not only for dragging monkey and by extension him to this pineapple hellhole, but also for trying everything and anything to get Gracie on his side. But thank god, it seemed like his monkey was a perfect little girl – she knew what family was, she knew who her Danno was, and no matter what money that guy threw at her, she always came back to HIM, smiles and giggles and sunshine and she made this place just a tiny bit better.

Yeah, she was perfect and if she wanted to come again, it could be even the hottest day and Danny would. All for his Gracie.

And the smile she gave him was worth thousand hottest days, so Danny decided they deserved an ice cream. So they walked out of the zoo and made their way to the ice cream place – the one that Gracie loved, when a dog ran to them, stopping in front of Gracie and wiggling his tail.

Well dog… it was a freaking Chihuahua and he heard that those were supposed to be evil and yippy but this one wasn’t, or at least it didn’t seem to be with Gracie cooing over it and kneeling down, running her hand over the dog’s fur.

“He’s so cuuute.” She said and smiled, and Danny frowned looking around. While he didn’t mind Gracie playing with the dog it was weird that there was no one out there who seemed to be looking like they knew it. And not anyone looking for it either. His frown deepened and Gracie pulled on his hand.

“Whose is he, Danno?” She asked and really… that owner sucked probably.

“Maybe he’s lost, monkey.” He answered and looked back down at the dog that sat down next to his daughter, looking for all the world like he belonged with them.

“That’s terrible!”  Danny agreed with that, it didn’t matter that it didn’t look like a REAL dog – the small dogs never did, in Danny’s opinion, seriously, to be a real dog, it had to be AT LEAST up to his knees, it didn’t deserve to have some kind of assholish owner who couldn’t take care of it. “What will we do?”

And waaaaaaaait what? What were they supposed to do?

“Maybe their owner is close. They might come to pick him up.” He said, doubting that himself. There seemed to be no owner, since no one was looking around frantically and truly, there were a lot of blondes in pink, but they didn’t seem to have lost a dog.

“What if they won’t?” Gracie asked, picking the dog up in her arms – and Danny decided he’ll have to have a talk with her about trusting animals, she didn’t know, because okay, this was just a small dog but he also heard that these could be pretty vicious. Though it really didn’t seem like it, with whining and nosing at Gracie’s neck. “We should take him with us.” She added and that was what Danny feared. Rachel would kill him if he let Gracie take that dog over.

“What about Mr. Hoppy? He wouldn’t like it if you brought another animal home without consulting him first.” He pointed out and Gracie frowned, obviously thinking before shrugging.

“We can take him to YOUR house.” And that was a deal breaker. Danny didn’t mind dogs, really, but he couldn’t keep one he didn’t know anything about. It could destroy his whole apartment, while he was at work, and he sure as hell couldn’t take him to HPD. Meka would have so much to say about that. And okay. He also wasn’t a fan of waking up an hour earlier to go out with a dog when he could still sleep in his warm nice bed.

“Gracie…”

“Please, Danno? Please? I promise I’ll come every day after school. And I’ll feed him, and I’ll wash him. We can’t leave him here alone. Please?” She asked again, lifting the dog further up and pressing him to his cheek and even the dog let out a quiet whimper (though that was probably because of Gracie holding him up like that, more than him understanding their speech) and Danny sighed. His baby was his soft spot.

“We’re putting up posters.” Danny warned and Gracie squealed running to him and hugging him close, the dog between them and trying to lick at any skin he could find.

… well… at least he’ll have his monkey over more often.

***

He was supposed to know it wasn’t going to be that easy. Not only because this was Hawaii, and not only because his ex-wife was Rachel who caught him on the next day after he brought Gracie home and she spat something about lawyers and not letting it be like that, Danny, I can promise you that, you think bribing our child with a dog, a DOG, Danny, can you even take care of the dog, and truth to be told, Danny stopped listening shortly after that. Of course he could take care of a dog and seriously, she knew that with him having a dog before, her taking it and they both knew very well what happened to it. He huffed to himself as he looked at the Chihuahua currently occupying his couch, looking so comfortable that Danny really had no heart to push it off.

It wasn’t hard only because of those reason. It was also the reason that Gracie, somehow decided SHE was going to work on the posters and it was third day and still there were no posters ready. Supposedly none of the ones she made captured the dog’s ‘character’, whatever that meant. And Danny really didn’t want her to get used to it, because well… it was a cute dog. Eventually the posters (that they WILL make) will bring the owner around and then Gracie will have to part with the dog. And it was going to hurt, Danny already knew that, but he was sure it would hurt a lot less if she didn’t have the dog around for long.

And of COURSE he was right – as he found out when he was picking Gracie up, the dog in car and all and they stopped in front of a store, when they noticed it. And Danny was sure that both of them did, even though Gracie made sure to look the other way. Danny sighed at that.

“Gracie.” He said quietly and Gracie sighed before looking up at him.

“But they lost him, Danno.” She said quietly and Danny sighed, before kneeling down.

“Monkey, imagine Mr. Hoppy getting lost.” She looked at him, her eyes wide and sad and Danny smiled. “You would miss him, wouldn’t you?” He asked and she nodded, all teary eyed and sad and Danny nodded.

“Let’s go return him, okay?” And Gracie gave a quiet sob and nodded again, holding Danny’s hand as they went to the car and sitting on the backseat, hugging the dog close the whole time that Danny drove to the address.

***

When they stopped in front of the house on beach (and seriously, what weirdo would have a house on the beach, didn’t the waves mess up with person’s sleep?!), Danny looked back at Gracie who frowned at the house and got out of the car, the dog still in her arms. Well… let her have her moment.

Danny smiled and walked up the stairs, knocking on the door. Once… twice…

And well… when no one was opening, he decided that maybe calling ahead would have been a nice idea. He sighed, and took out his phone, going to gallery – at least he was smart enough to take a picture of the flyer, when he heard steps and he frowned, stepping a bit in front of Gracie.

There was a man, water running down the side of his face and he was in his swim trunks and seriously? Didn’t these people know when they were supposed to be dressed?

“Yes?” The man asked, then he looked over at Gracie and blinked. “Chico?”

And REALLY? That was what he would name the Chihuahua? Oh god… the man was obviously an idiot.

And that proved to be true when the man stepped closer, and shook his head.

“Seriously, Chico? I was looking for you and –“

And that was pretty much when the Chihuahua growled and yipped and tried to bite off the guy’s hand and Danny lifted an eyebrow.

“Are you sure he’s yours?” He asked, because seriously. Weren’t dogs usually HAPPY to see their owners after they were lost? Danny was sure HIS dog would be.

“No. Yes. I mean… he is my sister’s.” The guy said and frowned, and there were wrinkles on his forehead as he glared at the dog. “Come here.” He hissed and the dog – Chico, just growled some more, little snappy teeth visible as his lips curled back.

Danny groaned and ran his hand over his face.

“He doesn’t look like he’s yours. Or even yours sister. He pretty much looks like he hates you.”

“That because he’s the devil.” The guy answered and stepped closer. “And my sister didn’t properly train him.” And that was it?

“Chico, stop that right this instant.” The man growled, the dog growling right back and Gracie pulled at Danny’s arm.

“Danno…”She whispered and Danny could see that in her eyes the ‘we can’t’ let him here, he is scared, Danno do something’ And Danny sighed.

“Gracie go back in the car.” Gracie gave him a look and Danny nodded. “Take the dog with you.”

And the man’s eyes snapped up to him as Gracie did as she was told.

“You can’t take my dog from me.” The man said and Danny rolled his eyes.

“When you behave like a Neanderthal? Seriously? THAT’S how you train your dog? By yelling?” Wow. What an imbecile. “Did that ever work?”

“Normal dogs listen.”

And really? Danny shook his head at that.

“You need to train normal dogs to do anything. Hell you need to train ANY dogs to do anything. What, you’re watching too much army channel or something? K-9 unit? They train the dogs there as well, and I can tell you, not by yelling their head off on them. And that there?” He motioned to his car and was only content when the guy’s eyes followed that line, “that there is a small dog. It means you have to praise him a lot.”

The  guys eyes returned to him and he frowned.

“I’m supposed to praise him when he does something wrong?” He asked and Danny took a deep breath. Oh god… this was a nightmare.

“Seriously, were you dropped on you head as a kid?” And the guy was opening his mouth and Danny wasn’t sure he would survive it if he tried to answer, so he quickly continued. “Rhetorical question, because I’m pretty sure you were. No, you’re not supposed to praise him when he does something wrong, you are supposed to praise him when he does something right. Yelling doesn’t really help unless you want the dog to hate you, which let me congratulate you, you managed to do just fine.”

And wow. Danny really wanted to ask whether the guy was okay with the face he was pulling. Aneurysm face, his mind came up with and Danny found himself agreeing to it. Yep, that was a person with brain damage, right there.

“What do you do when it does something wrong then?” The guy asked and Danny sighed.

“You can’t hit small dogs.” Hell and this guy probably didn’t even know anything about strength control or what with that yelling, “so mostly you take things he likes away. You don’t pay attention to him, you don’t give him treats.” And well… considering how emotionally dumb this guy seemed to be, he added. “You feed him, you still feed him, you just don’t give him the treats he especially likes.”

“You’re supposed to give him treats?”

And Danny could feel his chin hitting the ground at that and he shook his head, throwing his arms in the air.

“Forget it! You don’t deserve the dog! I’m pretty sure it would have better life at shelter than with you!” He said and turned to walk to the car, when suddenly the guy was right behind him, his arm gripped and somehow wrangled back, making Danny wince and he was just happy they were behind some kind of tree, because that wouldn’t be a nice picture for Gracie and he winced.

“What the hell?!”

“I told you, you can’t take my dog from me.”

“You don’t even care about it.” Danny hissed, because wow. What the hell was that guy – he had a feeling that any moment now, his shoulder would pop out of his joint. What the hell.

“You don’t have to like it, but you’re going to give Chico back.” The guy growled and Danny winced again.

“Jesus okay.” He hissed. “Okay, okay, just let me go.” He growled and when the guy did as he was told (stupid Neanderthal) he turned and punched him in the face, guy’s head snapping to the side.

“You’re right. I don’t like it.” Danny said when the guy turned, staring at him. Danny huffed and circled his shoulder as he walked over to the car and opened the door, crouching down in front of Gracie seat.

“Honey, we have to return the guy’s dog.” He said quietly and Gracie frowned.

“But he doesn’t even like Chico.” She said and Danny sighed. Of course it wouldn’t be that easy.

“I think he does, in his own special way.” Very special, the dropped on the head and bicycle ran over said head while it was knocked open by the sidewalk special, but he was not going to say that in front of his baby girl. “And his sister would be very sad, if she lost Chico. Look at him.” He said and pointed to the dog, who lay in Gracie’s lap, content. “He doesn’t look like he goes hungry” only without treats, that stupid guy, “or that he doesn’t have a place to sleep, or that he’s not washed. He obviously has a home, we knew it when we found him. And while this guy is a bit… uhm…”

“Dog dumb?” Gracie offered and Danny nodded.

“Yes, thank you honey, dog – dumb, doesn’t mean doesn’t mean that he’s taking bad care of him.”

Gracie sighed and nodded before lightly poking the dog.

“Wake up, Chico, you’re going home.” She said and Danny had to smile, because he was proud of his baby girl. It was obvious that she was sad, but she at least realized what was important and really… she was growing so fast. 

He stepped to the side, letting her get out of the car and followed her up the stairs to the guy, who obviously didn’t move an inch while Danny was not looking at him.

“Hey, Mister.” Gracie said and she frowned. “You should take better care of your dog.” She added, back straight and Danny could see the guy swallowing hard as he looked at Gracie as if he’d never seen a little girl before. “Chico is a good dog, and he really likes pancakes and the whipped cream, and he likes it when you brush behind his ear or let him sleep on your lap.” She continued and Danny could see her bottom lip waggling already, and yeah… he thought there would be at least one tear even before… But she sniffed holding the tears back as she glared at the guy.

“You should really learn how to do that.” She said, before lifting the dog and there was a small tear running down her cheek and Danny squeezed her shoulder as the guy took the dog, still staring – didn’t he know he was rude – and Gracie took another quick breath.

“Goodbye, Chico.” She said quietly and turned to Danny hugging him and Danny sighed, picking her up in his arms, letting her hid her face in his neck.

“Yeah, what she said.” He said as a good father and turned, just to be stopped by the Neanderthal’s voice.

“Uhm… “ He said smartly and Danny rolled his eyes turning back.

“What?” He asked and the guy shrugged.

“You can… visit?” The guy offered as he held on the dog that finally woke up and was growling quietly when he realized who was holding him, “like… you know what to do with the dog… and you could teach me.”

And Danny could FEEL Gracie perking up even before she turned and no. Oh god no. He opened his eyes and was shaking his head when Gracie gave the guy a blinding smile (and Danny could see the way he wanted to take a step back), and turned to Danny.

“Please, Danno?”

And that and there… Danny was fucked. Whatever he did in his past life had to be a terrible, terrible thing, he had to be some kind of mass murderer or something, because that was the only reason why he would be dragged to this hellhole AND to be forced to spent some of his free time (the time he had Gracie even) with this weirdo here. But he couldn’t say no, to that hopeful look his monkey had on her face and so he gave her a small smile, and accepted the hug.

He also made the mistake of letting his eyes wander to the guy who lifted an eyebrow and mouthed ‘Danno?’ at him. Danny’s eyes narrowed. This was going to be pain in the ass.

***

It wasn’t pain in the ass. It was much, much worse, it was pain in the whole BODY as Danny figured out the next weekend when Gracie’s ‘visitation rights’ started.  

Not only did Danny have to wake up soon, because Gracie wanted to take Chico on the walk, but when they came to the house, the guy – who introduced himself as Steve, told them that Chico couldn’t go too far from the house.

Danny could just stare for a moment before he pushed his daughter out of the house to the back beach, seriously the guy had a BACK BEACH, along with the dog, telling her, he’ll follow shortly, before turning at the guy, shaking his head.

“What do you mean, he can’t go too far? We found him on the other side of the CITY.”

And the guy, Steve, was looking and shrugged.

“I took him on a case.” A case. Seriously… a case. And the navy and… Danny’s eyes widened and he shook his head.

“Case?” He asked quietly.

“Yeah.” The guy nodded. “The drug dealing and-“

Oh god, that was the case that HPD was pulled off, that DANNY was pulled off because the freaking Five-0 decided it was their job and there was TALK about their commander throwing some person out of the window and that guy being just lucky that there was a pool or something like that. Danny didn’t really pay much attention, because he was sure he’ll never meet that psycho, so why bother listening more and more about him but now…

It would explain SO MUCH.

“You’re Steve McGarrett.” He said and when the guy looked at him and shrugged, freaking shrugged… that there was it. Oh god. He was in the house of freaking Five-0 commander.

… he had his DAUGHTER in the house of the crazy, suicidal, DANGEROUS Five-0 commander and he walked straight to the door, because oh god, oh god, oh god.

“I need to get my daughter out of here.” He muttered and then McGarrett was on him again – and did the guy ever hear of personal bubble, squeezing his forearm frowning.

“This is the first time in a week that Chico isn’t growling.” He said and okay, it was true, but then again, the dog was out, running on the beach after Gracie, it was obvious that it wouldn’t growl.

“This is a first time ever that my daughter is in psycho’s house.” He said, pulling at his arm, but McGarrett didn’t even move.

“I gave the dogs some treats. I even gave him whipped cream.”

And Danny stared, because seriously? He wasn’t even going to fight the psycho remark? And did he think that an answer to that, an appropriate answer to someone calling him psycho was mentioning that he gave the dog treats?! This was a nightmare.

Danny sighed, running his free hand over his eyes.

“ I have no words.” And he really, really didn’t. It seemed like this guy was a total imbecile but there was only so much Danny could do and say about that. “Giving dog whipped cream is not a good idea.”  He said and lifted his hand when McGarrett opened his mouth to talk. “And I don’t care what my kid said, you can only give whipped cream to your dog accidentally. It’s not really healthy for him.”

McGarrett frowned at him before nodding.

“I gave my dog a bowl of whipped cream. Accidentally.”

And the fact that Danny didn’t leave until Gracie came up to him didn’t mean anything but that he was so shocked, that he couldn’t even THINK through this guy’s idiocy.

***

After that it somehow became a routine. When he’d have Gracie he’d go pick her up, then they would go over to McGarrett’s, Gracie plays with the dog, they go home, then they come back the next day, fight McGarrett over taking Chico outside further than just back beach, mess up his house – even though that one Danny does mostly himself, Gracie was too perfect to just do that, but Danny did manage to get her to help from time to time, and just because it was unbelievably great, seeing McGarrett trying to control himself when his beautiful freakishly clean apartment got fingerprints and paw prints all over the place.

The scary thing was, that Danny didn’t realize when McGarrett became Steve for him and ‘Uncle Steve’ for Gracie, but he noticed it when he was sitting on the seat in the back porch, cold beer in his hand watching Gracie standing in the ankle deep water, laughing and trying to goad Chico to come into the water with her, and the dog being all twitchy taily, running all over the beach and trying to get closer to Grace without stepping into the water, which was of course impossible.

And Danny found himself smirking and grinning, because Grace was happy there and that was when Steve came up to him, giving him one plate with steak – done exactly the way Danny liked it, before he turned to the water.

“Food’s ready, Gracie!”

“Coming, Uncle Steve!” And that right there was when Danny noticed. He stopped with his fork half on the way to his mouth as he stared and Steve – McGarrett… STEVE looked back at him and lifted an eyebrow.

“You okay, Danno?”

“You know I don’t like when you call me that.” Danny’s lips moved without him realizing and he blinked because yeah… he knew that. And if he knew that that meant that Steve had to say that a lot to him and what the hell.

What was he doing, not noticing?

“Daddy?” And that was Gracie and Danny smiled at his child and shrugged.

“I’m fine, Gracie. You should try this steak, it’s wonderful.” He said and pushed the said steak into his mouth to have an excuse for not talking. He listened to Gracie chatter with Steve about Chico and the dog sleeping next to Gracie’s feet, and it all seemed so domestic, that Danny seriously didn’t understand how he missed it whole. How he missed that it was weeks, no MONTHS that they were coming over, just hanging out and Grace playing with the dog, which left HIM talking to Steve.

He ignored Steve’s concerned face when he shared a hug with Gracie and Danny got into the car and drove Gracie home – and what the hell? They got to the hugging stage too? And that was scary, that was terrifying and when he didn’t really look AT Steve, just somewhere over his shoulder when he waved his goodbye and drove off, dropping Gracie off at Rachel’s and getting a hug, smile and a big thank you and ‘see you, Danno’, before she ran into the house, hugging Rachel also and then Danny was free to go home and let his mind torture him with thinking about just when did this all happen and why hadn’t he noticed.

And the more he thought about it, the more he realized, he was fucked. Utterly and completely. And not in the way anyone could consider good either.

***

It was funny how few weeks could change one’s life. Every time that work got too boring Danny found himself picking his phone up, writing a message and stopping himself right before he pressed sent, because what… when the hell did he start to message Steve like that?

And obviously he wasn’t the only one doing the whole messaging thing, because there was few of the texts that were quick and made Danny grin a bit.

‘Kono’s bitching about the new case. You should see her face.’

‘Kamekona is trying to force me to try his new food.’

‘Kono might be in love with Yakuza. Chin’s not amused. We are.’

And Danny wondered how come he didn’t doubt for a second who any of those people were. He didn’t write back, because… he didn’t realize they were friends, they were just two, well three with Gracie, people who met every now and then because of a dog.

And when he got another message that evening ‘where are you’ he didn’t pay too much attention to him and instead he turned higher the volume on the TV. And obviously that was a mistake. Well, it wouldn’t be a mistake, if Danny had normal frie- acquaintances, but obviously he didn’t, because it was maybe hour and his door got kicked in, Danny jumped out on his couch, his gun in his hand and pointing at where his door was just few seconds ago – and staring at STEVE who was holding his own gun up and staring at Danny.

“What… what the hell are you doing?!” He asked and let his gun drop on his couch – slash – bed, because his poor bed and where will he take Gracie the next weekend and seriously, Danny has to worry about being robbed with WORKING door, and now there was one hanging on the hinges, or only one now and the lock… the lock was totally busted and what the HELL was Steve thinking?!

And Steve just blinked at him, confused.

“You okay?” He asked, before moving to glance into the kitchen and bathroom, gun still at ready. And for once, Danny was happy that he was this lonely excuse for a human being because if he had anyone over that would scare them shitless and Danny was sure they would just leave him and seriously, he’d lose all of his friends – if he had anyone else than Meka on this freaking hell-hot island.

“Of course I’m... – could you, could you stop checking my apartment? There is no one here.”  And Danny was a freaking cop. He could take care of himself.

And Steve did put his gun away, but only to look around Danny’s place, his face scrunched in something Danny couldn’t describe,

“I’m not really sure you can call this place an apartment.” And Danny gaped because really?! “More like a shoebox. I had cabins bigger than this place.”

And okay, that was enough.

“You do not get to trash my place after you trashed it!” And Steve just lifted an eyebrow, so he was obviously even denser than Danny thought, so he did the guy a favor. “The DOOR?” And yeah, now Steve motioned to the door, his mouth opened slightly before getting the ‘aaah’ look in his face and he shrugged.

“You didn’t come for our weekly dinner.” And oh god… they had weekly dinners. Hell that is more than Danny had with his PARENTS. “You also didn’t answer your phone, so I got worried.”

And Danny felt like he was in some kind of bizarre reality where worried meant, that anyone got the right to kick your door off its hinges when they got worried, just because Steve said that so nicely.

“I forgot.” He said, because well… ‘I was quietly freaking out’ didn’t sound impressive even in his head, and he was kind of sure that saying it out loud would make it sound even more stupid, so he refrained and decided that yeah, ‘I forgot’ was the safe way to go along with. Less crazy for sure.

Unfortunately, Steve’s arms crossed over his chest didn’t really look like he believed him.

“And the phone?”

“I have it on silent.”  And that there would be perfect. No one would be able to question it, it would be fantastic. If the Darth Vader theme didn’t start playing right next second (and Danny was returning to the idea of him being some kind of mass murderer in his last life) and Steve just lifted an eyebrow.

Danny rolled his eyes and picked up the phone.

“Yes, dear!” He growled into the phone and then blinked. “Heeeey, Monkey.”  He gave a small laugh. “How are you? What? No, I’m not at Uncle Steve’s. … Yes, he’s here. Yes I’ll tell him. Hey… Danno loves you.”

“What did Gracie say?” Steve asked and his eyes were positively shining and truth to be told, Danny wasn’t used to that. He knew his eyes shone like that whenever he just thought about Gracie, she was his kid, his monkey, his little princess. Rachel, well she looked at Gracie like that too, but Danny really wasn’t used to other people.

“She said to tell you hi and that she can’t wait for her surf lessons.” And Danny wasn’t even aware he allowed those lessons at first, but then he remembered. Steve promised they would only go to his back beach and that no one would see Gracie in her bikini other than the two of them, and that made Danny a bit calmer because he trusted Steve with his baby – and that right there was weird. He shook his head, deciding to concentrate on something else rather.

“Why did she think I’d see you?”

“She knows when our dinners are.” Steve pointed out like Danny was stupid, and Danny realized that yeah… he was kind of stupid, because he remembered the dinners. And they felt so naturally, well that was until Danny started paying attention to them, to all of these things around Steve and now they just made Danny feel weird.

“Are you okay?” Steve asked, taking a step closer to Danny and when Danny nodded and waved his hand, starting a rant about… something Danny himself wasn’t sure what was, and he touched his shoulder and the touch felt so warm and grounding that Danny could feel the flow of words from his mouth stopping as he stared at Steve.

Dinners, taking care of his kid, liking his kid, texting each other, touches that make his heart skip a beat or two…

“We’re dating.” Danny muttered, because this here? It suddenly felt very much like it did with Rachel at the beginning. And Danny gaped when Steve just nodded – hey, he thought he was more observant in human relationships than Steve was, but then the man continued,

“I know… Kono told me.”  And okay. At least no one had to tell to Danny so his reputation was saved (he didn’t count how long it took him to figure it out, nope, not at all).

“When did we start dating?” Danny asked, baffled and Steve shrugged.

“Kono said I shouldn’t tell you because I don’t know the date exactly, she said something about you probably getting mad because of me not knowing our anniversary,” and okay, not knowing their anniversary was not nice at all, but Danny decided to let hat one slide this time, because first – he only figured they were dating now, and second he didn’t know the anniversary either. Yet. “But I’m pretty sure I could ask her. She has this whole memory book she keeps writing about us.”

Danny blinked and motioned between the two of them slowly.

“How does she…?”

“She has intel.” Steve said, his face in a grumpy scowl, making Danny blink.

“You tell your co-workers about me?” And okay, stupid question because maybe possibly he told something about Steve to Mekka. But Danny was sure he talked more about his dog. Yep, Hundred percent sure, and just to stay sure he was not gonna call Mekka and ask. His life was nice and peaceful this way.

And this time the scowl changed into ‘I did something wrong and got caught’ scowl, which Danny found impressive – how many scowls could one person make.

“I mentioned you a few times.” Danny just lifted an eyebrow so Steve frowned. “I’m still looking for the cameras in my house. She knows things she shouldn’t know.” He deadpanned and Danny decided not to prod into that because he wasn’t sure if Steve was joking or not. And in case he wasn’t, he didn’t want to know. Obviously it wasn’t only the freaking Commander, the WHOLE Five-0 was freaky.

Danny shook his head, trying to think about something as he looked around the apartment and frowned at the door.

“You messed my door!” He accused, even though Steve already knew that. “How am I going to live here and not get robbed now?!”

Steve shrugged, obviously content.

“You can come to my house. I’m not comfortable with you living here in such dangerous neighborhood anyway.”  And that sentence there. It looked really staged to Danny, so he bet he could thank Kono for that also.

“Just to inform you, no one got stabbed around here for few weeks now.” Danny said proudly, smirk playing on his lips only to disappear when Steve’s face was all blank and weird. “Oh god… you?” He asked, because okay, there was a lot of prodding into his private life Danny could take, he lived with Rachel after all, but enough was enough.

“It was you?! You did something here? What, do you have a car stationed here all the time?” Danny asked, quickly walking over to the window and looking out. “Is it that black van? No, no it was here surely before… The blue car? The blue car looks a bit too expensive for this place. But would you be able to stash all your stalker tools there?” Probably, Five-0 had all kinds of ninja things. “Is Kono there? Like did she kick you over here to check and I don’t know-“ And waaaaaaaait… “How did you know where I live? Did you follow me home?!”

And Steve scoffed at that.

“Of course not.” And at least thank god for that. “I tracked your mobile on the satellite.”

And okay… what?! Danny gaped and opened his mouth to argue some more, but then Steve used some kind of his Five-0 ninja move and was there right in his space, and Danny couldn’t make a sound, or well, he could but the sounds were nothing like actual words, because Steve’s lips were on his own, kissing and…

… well… Danny came to the conclusion that his rant could wait until they were done. It was a long time since kiss felt that good, he decided.

***

In the end, Danny moved over to Steve’s. He wondered if it was some evil plot of the Five-0 Commander’s, making his flat unlivable and then kidnapping him to have his wicked way with him or something, but the new living arrangement weren’t that bad.

… they weren’t that good either, at least not at the nights when the two of them weren’t busy in bedroom, since Danny and Steve kept arguing when Danny couldn’t sleep with the freaking waves around and Steve had problem with television playing at night – seriously what normal person had a problem with that?!

‘It makes sounds at night, Danny, it’s hard to sleep like that.’ Steve would say, frowning and Danny would just roll his eyes.

‘Weren’t you part of the freaking ARMY? I’m sure there were more sounds at night and all that and you had to sleep through. Like in all those movies.’

‘SEALS.’

‘The point STILL stands.’ And the argument would continue, neither of them getting too much sleep.

But when Danny would come out of the shower later, getting ready to go to HPD, there would be coffee waiting on him on the table, sometimes malasadas, sometimes not, depending how much of a health freak Steve was feeling that day, and Steve would be either running outside or would be surfing on the beach, before coming home exactly five minutes later, and going to hit the shower himself – but not before patting Danny’s shoulder, which would result in Danny complaining about being either a) sweaty or b) wet, and that he really, really didn’t want to go change again, and Steven stop being a child, because I can SEE you smirking from here!, and ‘No, Danny, you can’t, because I have my back on you.’

And Danny would grumble and go change, because he was professional, he wouldn’t go to work like that and then waited for Steve to get ready and drive them both to work with Danny’s car (and of course Steve would be the one driving it, that was another nice thing to complain about for Danny), and Danny would never admit that these mornings were making his day better, and his work more bearable.

In the evening hey would get a few beers sit back to lanai and after that… well…they got busy more often than not.

But of course it wasn’t just nice days. There were days when Danny was almost dying with dread, because Steve would come all beaten up – if he wasn’t missing, and Danny would wonder if it was all worth it. He would yell at Steve that he was suicidal, that he was stupid enough not to call backup, that he was freaking THERE at HPD and if Steve DID, he would take the freaking car and drive, and be THERE for him and seriously, couldn’t he at least wait for Kono and Chin!

And Steve would just smile and shrug and… And Danny would really like to be able to leave at times like that, to walk out on Steve and never turn back, because he didn’t want to lose ANOTHER person, he didn’t want to explain it all to Gracie… but he had a feeling that leaving wouldn’t help the fear he felt. He was too deep in this thing with Steve already, and it must’ve been in the moment of insanity and fear that he requested to be in Five-0. At what Steve smiled, wide and happy, and… seriously, if this was another plan of Steve’s, Danny was going to kill him and feed him to the Chihuahua.


End file.
